If the selection at the average retailer is anything to go by, girls don't play video games. If cultural stereotypes are anything to go by, video games are for males. They're the makers, the buyers and the players.

There is often truth to stereotypes. But whatever truth there may be, the stereotype does not show the long and complicated path taken to formulate it, spread it and have it come back to shape societal views.

The attitude towards women in video games is even worse when you take online multiplayer into consideration. One of my team mates in League of Legends is a woman, and I've seen some absolutely terrible things being thrown her way in chat - during and even after the game is over. I've also pretended to be female in League of Legends just to see what would happen, and it was just as bad. However, I could just shrug it off - hearing the things guys say while you're pretending to be a woman as an experiment is a hell of a lot different than hearing these things when you're actually a woman.

I even caught myself thinking 'my female team mate should just pretend to be a guy' - but you know what? That's expletive ridiculous. As Lien details in her article, changing the way video games are being marketed would be a very good first step that could most certainly snowball into the future.

It's not a problem with 'the industry' in the sense that videogame designers have a problem being misogynist pigs. I'll warrant that publishers might have that problem, but the totality of devs sure as hell don't.
I'd argue the general public doesn't either. There are a lot of nice people who stick to small online communities, and simply don't play online games where they think they'll be bombarded with idiots. Same with certain forums.

^Ever since I saw the first trailer for Bioshock Infinite, this is basically how I saw it, a 'frat boy' game. Whatever bullshit social commentary is in there doesn't matter, it won't penetrate those neanderthal skulls and I won't be able to enjoy the game past the bullshit frat boy pandering.

You know how you solve this all? Sidestep the retailers, sidestep the publishers, cut out these middlemen and get interactive with the devs. Look at all the old boys coming out on Kickstarter and spending hours every day taking feedback from the public. They don't give a rat's ass what publishers think, because the publishers have been blocking all their good ideas and they're tired of it. Kickstarter's not a long term solution, but that's a whole other issue.

@Bill Shooter of Bul:
^This is a tenable solution. It would create an inordinate amount of network traffic everytime anyone update his or her server list though.

@Luminair
@Ultimatebadass
[Don't make this a "gender" problem, because it's not. It's a people problem, and claiming that women are magically more affected by it is... well... sexist.]
^Sums it.